Inside North Car­oli­na Demo­c­rat Roy Coop­er’s Cul­ture of Cor­rup­tion as Gov­er­nor

Soft-on-crime North Car­oli­na Demo­c­rat Sen­ate can­di­date Roy Cooper’s tenure as gov­er­nor was marked by a num­ber of scan­dals expos­ing a cul­ture of cor­rup­tion in plain sight.
Ear­ly in his tenure, Coop­er used the pow­er of his office to pres­sure ener­gy com­pa­nies into cre­at­ing a $57.8 mil­lion slush fund as his admin­is­tra­tion held up a pipeline per­mit. Inves­ti­ga­tors called it “an abuse of pow­er” in sworn tes­ti­mo­ny when Cooper’s top aides rewrote an agree­ment giv­ing Coop­er con­trol over funds rather than the State of North Car­oli­na.

A Duke Ener­gy lob­by­ist said Cooper’s senior pol­i­cy advi …